Islamabad’s long-discussed new cricket stadium has moved a significant step closer to reality, with the Capital Development Authority confirming that the proposed venue near Sector D-12 will hold more than 35,000 spectators in a three-tier structure rising over 25 metres at the foothills of the Margalla Hills.
The project is expected to move ahead within days after the CDA and the contractor settled a dispute over the bid rate, and the approach road from Margalla Road to the site has already been completed, removing one of the practical obstacles that had held the scheme back. The first phase of work will cover the stadium itself along with around three kilometres of roads, while a second phase will handle landscaping and electrical work and prepare the playing surface, including the pitches.
Pakistan Cricket Board officials have told Dawn that they hope to have the ground fully operational before the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in 2028, with the ambition of staging some of the tournament’s matches in the capital. That target gives the project a hard deadline and a clear purpose: Islamabad, despite being the country’s capital, has long lacked a major international cricket venue of its own, and a modern ground would put it firmly on the map for global events.
The choice of site has not been straightforward. The CDA considered a location near Malpur in Zone I before settling on the D-12 area, which falls within Zone III, where building is generally restricted and local landowners cannot put up houses on their own land. The civic body maintains, however, that sports and recreational facilities are permitted in the zone and that a stadium qualifies, a distinction that will be watched closely by anyone concerned about development in the protected hills area.
The project also carries the weight of past failure. An earlier PCB stadium scheme at Shakarparian was abandoned after directions from the Supreme Court, despite construction having begun on land provided by the CDA, and this time the civic agency itself will build the venue rather than the board. The commercial wrangling has been just as drawn out: the project’s PC-I was estimated at Rs11.9 billion, the Habib-ZKB-EA joint venture came in with the lowest bid at Rs8.9 billion, and the two sides have now agreed a Rs400 million rebate after the CDA sought a reduction before the groundbreaking and the contractor argued that fuel and other costs had risen since its bid was submitted in March, leaving no room to cut its price.
If the work now proceeds on schedule, the stadium could transform both Islamabad’s sporting landscape and its claim to host major tournaments, but the history of this project counsels caution. The bid dispute is settled and the road is built, yet the real test will be whether construction moves swiftly through both phases and whether the Zone III question stays settled, because only a finished, functioning ground, ready well before 2028, will turn a decade of proposals into something fans can actually walk into.
